Avon

Avon is a company that specializes in beauty products and as, as of 2012, was the fifth-largest beauty company in the world, with over 64 million representatives. Also as of 2012, it was the second-largest direct-selling enterprise of any kind, second only to Amway. Avon Products, as the company is technically known, is a multi-level marketing company. Avon Taiwan is the Taiwanese arm of the business, but the larger business is headquartered in London in the United Kingdom.

Founder David McConnell was a struggling door-to-door salesman who sold books in New York. In 1886, McConnell made the decision to sell perfumes instead, and he started his new business out of a small office in Manhattan. In 1892, a business associate suggested that he change the name to California Perfume Company.
The company was incorporated in New York in 1916. In 1932, the company filed a trademark application for the Avon name. The company would go on to expand internationally, entering the Asian markets in 1990. As direct selling is illegal in China, the company was forced to sell its products only through physical stores, which it called Beauty Boutiques. Today, Avon sells products across 100 countries, including Taiwan. The ban on direct selling in China was lifted in 2001.

Avon now has a total of 26,000 employees, and generated $5.72 billion USD in revenue in 2016.
In addition to its corporate ventures, Avon also owns a charitable foundation called The Avon Foundation for Women. The foundation calls itself the largest corporate philanthropy project dedicated to women.